Posted on
February 5, 2013
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OST to PST |
Comments Off on How to repair exchange OST with the help of OST Integrity Check tool?

Exchange users often face troubles in accessing their email accounts due to OST file corruption. OST file becomes damaged and fails to synchronize with the mail server in following situations:

Loss of internet connectivity

Corrupt storage media

Crash of Exchange Server

Accidental deletion of user mailbox from the Server

OST files enable exchange users to access their mailboxes when MS Exchange Server turns in offline mode. However, OST file corruption or non-synchronization of OST file prevents user from accessing mailbox. Adding to that when you are not able to access OST file, you may also face various error messages as mentioned below:

OST integrity Checker or scanost.exe tool is in-built utility in MS Outlook that can help user to recover Exchange mailbox folders from corrupt or inaccessible OST file. Location of scanost.exe application varies from different Outlook versions. If you use Outlook 2003 and Windows XP, the scanost.exe will be located in the following folder of your computer:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\<locale ID>\scanost.exe

If MS Outlook 2010 is installed in your system, you’ll find scanost.exe utility in following location:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14

You can start repairing of OST files with OST integrity check tool in following steps:

Open the default folder that stores scanost.exe application

Right click on scanost application icon

Select the Outlook profile that contains corrupt OST file

If a message “Connect or Work offline” appears, click Connect

Select appropriate option

Tick the “Repair Errors” check box

Click “Begin Scan”

OST integrity check utility compares OST data with the Exchange mailbox for discrepancies. It creates a log report of differences between the Exchange mailbox and the OST file. But, one must not forget that OST integrity check tool also has got some limitations like:

It just fixes synchronization errors of OST file

It is not capable to recover entire data from the inaccessible OST file

It fails to repair OST files, that are damaged due to hardware malfunction or Exchange Server crash

Due to various limitations of scanost.exe application, it is better to convert the corrupt OST file into PST file format using third party OST2PST conversion software. You will find several OST2PST converters on internet. Kernel for OST recovery is one such smart OST file repair software that acts as ideal ost2pst converter and recover deleted exchange mailbox from the corrupt OST file in almost every condition. The software export items like contacts, journals, calendars, notes, drafts along with emails from OST file to PST. The product perform intensive scanning of the OST file and save the recovered email messages separately to a PST file at a user specified location. It fully supports OST file generated with any version of MS Exchange Server and MS Outlook.

Summary:

Exchange OST file or user mailbox may become inaccessible due to different reasons. You can start repairing inaccessible Outlook profile on Exchange Server using scanost.exe tool of MS Outlook. However, scanost.exe is not capable of fixing OST file corruption issues due to hardware failure or crash of server. In such a scenario, you should choose a professional OST2PST conversion tool to recover mailbox items.